Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: juddspaintballs on January 07, 2018, 04:35:39 PM
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I have a detached garage, so running the boiler to the garage would cost a pretty penny between a unit heater, more insulated underground pipe, a separate pump, WxW heat exchanger, glycol, etc. I will do it eventually, but not today.
I have a 2 car garage built out of cinder blocks and an additional 8' on the side for work space. 8' ceilings, 2 old wooden garage doors that don't seal very well to the walls, and very little insulation between the ceiling and the attic space above. I will also eventually replace the garage doors with insulated versions that seal well and I intend on insulating inside the garage, too. I'll likely insulate before I run my boiler out there.
Anyways...
Northern Tool has this 240v electric unit heater on sale for $80. It's 17,065 BTU. The garage has it's own 200A service and I can easily wire this heater in to the panel. I realize that the 17k BTU won't HEAT the garage, but if I'm only using it on days I'm actually in the garage, it should take the chill off, right? On a 5 degree day last week, I ran my kerosene stand up heater and turned on 4 big halogen work lights and brought the garage up to about 40 degrees over a few hours.
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200578579_200578579
Is this worth the $80 for my garage or should I focus my money on something better like a Salamander? I have dirt bikes, motorcycles, and sometimes a gas can in the garage along with my car. I try to be careful when I use the kerosene heater because the potential for gas fumes easily exists and flame based heat keeps me antsy.
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I think a pair of them would work really well if you can afford it but one should keep it cool at least.
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I took a look around and Northern Tool sells a 25k BTU propane construction heater (not a salamander) for $65. My little KeroSun heater puts out about 10k BTU. I think both of those together should heat up the garage pretty quickly. Once the blocks are warm, they hold heat for a while.
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Is this going to be only heated sometimes or why would you need a w2w HX, extra pump, and glycol to run a unit heater? A guy could easily keep that loop flowing through the unit heater and only turn the fan on when you need heat, thus eliminating the plate exchanger and pump as well as glycol. Those little 25k construction heaters do pretty well on a 20LB cylinder though for the time being, my dad bought one to thaw his cabin out just last week and it heated 1600 sq ft from 25 to 50 degrees in about an hour, although well insulated. Better investment than the electric one if you ask me, but that's just my opinion
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I was intending only period heat out there, but I guess once I insulate the garage there is no reason not to keep it ~60 in there all of the time.
My wife was placing an order with Amazon and asked me if I needed anything. I looked up 25k BTU propane heaters just for fun and they had a used one in the original packaging (likely a return) sold and shipped by Amazon Prime for $31. It's hard to say no to that.
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Instead of a unit heater find an old furnace, gut it and install a HX in that, a lot of times I rotate the fan 90 degrees and pull air thru the HX and blow the warm air across the floor. Usually a lot quieter than a unit heater as well. If the pump always runs no need for glycol.
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Instead of a unit heater find an old furnace, gut it and install a HX in that, a lot of times I rotate the fan 90 degrees and pull air thru the HX and blow the warm air across the floor. Usually a lot quieter than a unit heater as well. If the pump always runs no need for glycol.
I've got an old Miller mobile home downdraft furnace I gutted and put a 90k water to air exchanger in. I've got an uninsulated 30x40 barn and it makes a noticble difference when I've got it running. Planning on insulating the barn and running it off a thermostat full time. Circ pump runs 24/7 and it's just the boiler water that I run through it. 1 pump on the back of the boiler and it serves as a mixing loop when the fan isn't running.
I stuck 2" foamboard insulation in it to keep the heat in when I'm not using it. I've got maybe $125 into it and an evening worth of work gutting and cleaning it.
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Instead of a unit heater find an old furnace, gut it and install a HX in that, a lot of times I rotate the fan 90 degrees and pull air thru the HX and blow the warm air across the floor. Usually a lot quieter than a unit heater as well. If the pump always runs no need for glycol.
I've got an old Miller mobile home downdraft furnace I gutted and put a 90k water to air exchanger in. I've got an uninsulated 30x40 barn and it makes a noticble difference when I've got it running. Planning on insulating the barn and running it off a thermostat full time. Circ pump runs 24/7 and it's just the boiler water that I run through it. 1 pump on the back of the boiler and it serves as a mixing loop when the fan isn't running.
I stuck 2" foamboard insulation in it to keep the heat in when I'm not using it. I've got maybe $125 into it and an evening worth of work gutting and cleaning it.
Yep, nice thing as well is you can add a filter to em.
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Well, that didn't work out. That returned heater we got from Amazon is on it's way back to Amazon. They didn't include the hose or regulator with it, despite the description saying it did, so I returned it. That's just as well, since it was considerably smaller than I was imagining and I don't think it would have done much more than my Kerosun heater. I think I'll get one of those kerosene/diesel salamander heaters from Tractor Supply Co for $200. At least I know that sucker will heat up the garage quickly.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/master-kerosene-diesel-forced-air-heater-75-000-btu-102632299--1?cm_vc=IOPDP1
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I've soldered Pex adapters on the copper tubes in a heat pump outside unit with a blown compressor. Heats like nothing you've eve seen and costs the price of scrap copper. :)
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If I'm understanding what you did, you're running boiler water through an outdoor unit, hooking up the "radiator" fan to power, and running it inside somewhere as a blown heating radiator more or less?
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Correct..each loop gets a bushing and a 1/2 Pex adapter, then tee them together. Then relay the 220 fan or run through a electric baseboard line volt thermostat.
It'll throw a wall of hot air. Wish I had a better picture.
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Correct..each loop gets a bushing and a 1/2 Pex adapter, then tee them together. Then relay the 220 fan or run through a electric baseboard line volt thermostat.
It'll throw a wall of hot air. Wish I had a better picture.
I saw someone else do that awhile back here, seems like an awesome idea. What kind of flow can a guy get through those things? Seems like the small line size would be pretty restrictive?
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I might have posted it before.
It is pretty restrictive. Coil is way oversized for the water flow. I've messed around with several and usually run a 30-50 degree delta. Air temps are still pretty hot though. A 5 ton unit will put a serious load on a good sized owb. 200,000+ btu's I'd imagine.
It's redneck for sure. But fun.
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It was someone on Facebook where I had seen it. Might have to try that some day if you can get that sort of output from it! Cheap unit heater if you don't care about looks and have the extra space
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Had a 4ton unit like that hooked to a 546 Woodmaster in a greenhouse 18 yrs ago. Made that stove plead for mercy.
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I always figured I'd buy a regular coil and sheet metal screw it to a box fan. I can run a 120v thermostat on the fan and have a really good redneck unit heater that is fairly quiet, has 3 speeds, and doesn't cost a fortune.